Q: In the 1950s, China adopted the "people's commune
system" in its rural areas in a socialist campaign. However, it has
been phased out since 1978 when rural reforms were implemented.
Does this indicate that China no longer sticks to socialist
road?
A: Let's review experiences in history before answering this
question. China was perennially haunted by the specter of
starvation in the first half of the 20th Century. After the
People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, the new government
initiated an agrarian reform, abolishing feudal ownership of land
and redistributing the land to individual farm households. The
reform greatly boosted farmers' production enthusiasm and
revitalized rural economy. Rapid development of agriculture and
rising living standards of farmers prompted the country's
leadership to launch another round of rural reform to realize
public ownership of production materials, one of the cornerstone
principles of socialism. Farmland, together with its management
right, was taken away from farmers and put into State control.
People's communes were established throughout the country to manage
all agricultural production on behalf of the State in accordance
with a national plan made annually by the central government in
Beijing. Farmers were organized into small production teams, and
teams into brigades, and brigades into communes. Members of each
production team, the basic work unit, would start and finish each
day's work together just like workers in a factory. Farmers above
the age of 18 earned 10 work points each day and those under 18 got
8 to 9 points. Each individual farmer would get his payment, which
was based on annual accumulation of his daily work points, usually
at the end of each year, both in kind and in cash. As you can tell,
there was little difference in farmers' income.
Deprived of their decision-making powers and with little income
difference, farmers gradually lost their work initiative, which
resulted in a sharp decline in agricultural production across the
nation. The situation became so catastrophic that the central
government made the decision to abolish the people's commune system
ad introduced the household contract responsibility system. While
maintaining collective ownership of farmland, the new system
contracts farmland to individual household and leaves farmers to
decide what and how much they grow on their land. The success story
of China's agriculture testifies to the correctness of the latest
reforms.
A woman in Sichuan Province prepares
dinner for her family.? Some farmers in Sichuan and Anhui, two
pioneer provinces in rural reforms, began to experiment with the
household contract responsibility system at the end of
1978.
